Micky Arison will remain chairman of the British-American firm, whose reputation has been badly damaged following the sinking of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy last year.

He will be replaced by Arnold Donald, a board member whose last CEO job was running an artificial sweetner company more than a decade ago.

“I have been discussing this with the board for some time now and feel the timing is right to align our company with corporate governance best practices and turn over the reins after 34 years as CEO,” Mr Arison said.

News of the management shake-up came as Carnival announced better-than-expected results on Tuesday.

Net profits rose to $41m (£26.6m) in the second quarter from $14m a year earlier, while revenues fell 2pc to $3.48bn.

The world’s largest cruise company is still feeling the effects of a string of incidents on its vessels over the past 18 months. The worst was the capsizing of the Costa Concordia off the west coast of Italy on January 13, 2012. Thirty people were killed in the accident, with a further two still missing, presumed dead.

There have been further problems this year. In February, Carnival Triumph lost power and drifted for four days in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving passengers with limited access to food and toilets.

After the Costa Concordia disaster, shares in the dual-listed company plummeted 16.5pc in London from £22.19 to £18.54. They closed up 5.3pc at £22.91 on Tuesday despite the company cutting its full-year profit outlook twice this year, and admitting cumulative advance bookings for the rest of 2013 were below last year’s levels.

“Our advisers are saying that the recovery will be gradual and it will take two to three years for the Carnival brand to fully recover, but the good news is that it appears that the recovery has started,” Howard Frank, chief operating officer, said on Tuesday.

Mr Arison, the billionaire owner of the Miami Heat basketball team, owns 30pc of Carnival, which his father Ted co-founded in 1972. After stepping down on July 3, he says he will take a less hands-on role.

“I’m going to be looking to Arnold to run the day-to-day corporate operations and I may even take a couple of golf lessons,” Mr Arison, 63, said.

However, despite being a board member for 12 years, there are concerns that Mr Donald lacks the required experience to grow the owner of Holland America, P&O and Cunard cruise lines.

Before joining Carnival, he was senior vice-president at Monsanto and served as chief executive of the seed giant’s Equal sweetener business when it was spun off as Merisant in 2000.

“On one hand Donald is a good choice in terms of someone that has familiarity with the company, on the other hand he doesn’t necessarily have the direct operational experience,” Matthew Jacob, an analyst at ITG, said.

Mr Donald will be taking control of a company undergoing change. Last month the company announced it is pulling out of Europe for the second time in six years, blaming high air fares for keeping US travellers away from the region.

Earlier this month Carol Marlow and Peter Shanks, the managing directors of P&O and Cunard, revealed they will follow customer services director Giles Hawke out the door.